


Never be sick of you

by Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness



Series: Flu Verse [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Illnesses, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, No sexytimes; I just want them to be able to swear a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-12 16:27:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18014327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness/pseuds/Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness
Summary: Gabriel comes back from Apocalypse World so low on grace he's essentially human.  Unfortunately, he finds out that being human isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Oh, and someone's aterriblepatient.





	Never be sick of you

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2019 Gabriel Bingo Square, ' **Flu season Sabriel.'**

It was a couple of months after they had rescued everyone from the Apocalypse World. Lucifer and Gabriel had worked together to kill Alternate Michael, and Team Free Will 2.0 had (grudgingly) let Lucifer stay in the bunker and interact with Jack after he'd helped them. Gabriel had been low on grace, and was even lower after fighting Michael. Essentially, he was as human as Cas had been when Metatron had stolen his grace, and, according to Lucifer and Cas, it was going to take a few months for his grace to replenish itself to the point where he didn't need 'human' things like sleep and food. 

Sam was the only one of the bunch who seemed to remember Gabriel's torture at Asmodeus' hands after they got back from the alternate universe, and he had quietly been there for the archangel whenever he'd wanted to talk or needed to cry. In the midst of all of that, the two had fallen in at least mutual attraction, if not full-on love, and had started...well, 'dating' probably wasn't the right word, but they spent most nights cuddled up with each other in Sam's room. 

The bunker was starting to empty out, what with the refugees finding their own places to live. Thus, there was no one in the library but Sam when Gabriel poked his head around the door, looking pale and sweating profusely. "Sam?" His voice was wavering slightly. "Sam...I think there's something really wrong with me." Sam had never heard him sound so worried. 

Frowning, Sam nearly knocked his chair over backward as he got out of it and made his way over to his boyfriend. "Gabriel! What's wrong?" he demanded, looking the shorter man over for wounds. He didn't see any blood, but when he touched Gabriel's wrist, he seemed hot. Sam relocated his hand to Gabriel's forehead, and discovered that he had a fever.

"I don't know. Sam..." Gabriel might be a bit of a drama queen. "I think I might be dying," he whispered. "I feel like I'm dying. I want you to know that I love you, but my porn stash should go to Dean, because--"

Sam interrupted; he was now fairly sure what was going on (especially since a few of the refugees had had the flu recently). "You're not dying, Gabriel. I think you're just sick. I'll get Cas to make sure, but...does your throat hurt? And do you feel sort of achy all over? Pain in your sinuses?"

Gabriel stared at him, wide-eyed. "Yeah...how did you know?" In fairness, he hadn't been mostly-human for long. 

"It sounds like the flu," Sam replied, finally relaxing. "Let's get you back to bed, then I'll get Cas, and if he says it's just the flu, I'll get you some medicine for it." He smiled fondly down at the golden-haired man. "And I'll take care of you. Don't worry. I know it feels horrible, but you're really not dying."

"Are you sure?" Gabriel let Sam turn him, and leaned against the taller man as they made their way back to their room. 

"Pretty sure." Sam eyed Gabriel as he helped him sit down on the edge of the bed. "You're going to want something more comfortable to sleep in than jeans. Hang on, I think I've got some old sweats here somewhere..." He digs in one of his drawers for a few minutes, and then pulls out a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Gabriel will likely be swimming in them, but at least he'll be warm and in more than just his boxers. "Put these on, get in bed, and I'll go get Cas, okay?"

"'Kay." Gabriel still looked shell-shocked, but he'd started to put on the sweatshirt by the time Sam closed the door to the room behind him. He set out in search of Cas, whom he eventually found in the sparring room with Jack and Lucifer. The two angels appeared to be trying to explain to Jack how to do something with his powers. Jack didn't seem to have the hang of whatever it was yet, because he kept pointing dramatically at the punching bag, but nothing was happening to it. Sam waved Cas over from across the room, and the angel walked over to him. It was nice, Sam thought, to see Cas respond so quickly to non-verbal, non-literal cues. The angel was learning. 

"Hello, Sam. Is something wrong?" Castiel must have read the worry on Sam's face when he first walked in the room.

"Gabriel is sick," Sam explained. "I think it's just the flu, but...could you check? Please? Just in case it's not?"

"Of course, Sam," Cas replied warmly (for Cas, at least). "I'll be back in a minute," he called over to Jack and Lucifer. The latter waved at him before he fell into step beside Sam as they walked back to Sam and Gabriel's room.

Sam opened the door and walked in, certain that Gabriel had had enough time to get changed--which he had. The nearly graceless archangel was huddled under the blankets wearing Sam's sweatpants and shirt, still looking frightened and pale. Sam gestured to him, and Cas walked around the bed and set two fingers on Gabriel's forehead. Gabriel didn't flinch, as he once might have, though he did close his eyes. "...Am I dying?" he asked again, his voice starting to become raspy. 

"No, brother. I believe Sam is correct," Castiel replied as he withdrew his fingers. "You are low enough on grace that your vessel is having to fight off a viral infection. It is using fever to try to burn away the virus particles, and you are producing more mucus than you normally do to try to trap additional particles before they can harm you. You will not die from this." 

"Can you fix it?" Gabriel asked, golden eyes looking up at the blue ones above him. 

Castiel hesitated, and Sam frowned at him. "I could, but if I did, I believe you would just get sick again immediately; there are too many virus particles in the air. As long as your fever doesn't become dangerous, I think it would be best for your body to fight this virus off on its own. It will help you fight this and other, similar viruses off in the future, until you get your grace back." 

"It -is- flu season," Sam admitted. His own immune system was healthy enough that he almost never got the flu. He hated to see Gabriel go through it, especially with all the progress he's made getting Gabriel to have confidence in himself again. This was very likely to set Gabriel's recovery back a few steps. Still, if Gabriel was just going to get sick again every time Cas magicked the sickness away... Sam smiled down at Gabriel, and patted his knee. "Don't worry, Gabe. I'll take good care of you. I'll make sure your fever doesn't get too high, and you'll feel better in a week or so."

"A week?" Gabriel squeaked, and then started coughing. Sam grimaced in sympathy; although he didn't normally get ill, he had been sick once or twice and it was never a pleasant experience. 

"Yeah, but you'll feel loads better after a few days. You'll just be tired." Sam continued his inspirational speech. "For now, I'll go get a thermometer, some medicine, and some juice. You're going to need to drink a lot to stay hydrated, and soon you won't feel like eating much, but I'll make you some tomato rice soup. Dean always made it for me when I was sick as a kid."

"We will make certain you do not die," Castiel agreed, in his usual dry way. "I will come check on you later, brother." 

"'Kay." Gabriel didn't sound happy, but then again, he didn't sound as if he still thought he was going to die, and he'd stopped talking about his pornography collection. Sam smiled at him and patted his knee once more, then left the room with Cas, who headed back toward the sparring room where Jack and Lucifer had been. Sam had a bunch of supplies to get, so he set out toward the room that doubled as a surgical room, where they kept all their medicine, supplies for stitching hunters up, and the like.

About ten minutes later, as he was taking the hot soup off of the stove, Sam tried not to laugh as he got a text from Gabriel:  
im freezing, arent i supposed to be hot if i have a fever? r u sure this is just the flu? what if its something else? 

'Chills are normal when you have the flu. I'll bring some extra blankets with the hot soup,' Sam texted back, grinning to himself. The way that Gabriel was so dramatic about everything was endearing (at least for now; in a week, he might feel differently). 

The reply came back almost immediately as Sam arranged the soup and an entire pitcher of orange juice (courtesy of frozen concentrate) on a tray along with utensils and tissues and medicine and the like:  
come back soon pls!

Sam knew Gabriel was upset; it was about the only time that the archangel bothered to use punctuation while texting. He slipped his phone into his back pocket, then gathered up his supplies (he'd already grabbed a few extra blankets) in one hand and the tray in the other before he carefully made his way back to their room. Opening the door was tricky, but he managed it. Gabriel was huddled under the covers, shivering, eyes still wide as he experienced his first ever illness. "Sam!" His voice was already a little raspy from coughing and sneezing. 

"Hey, babe." Sam set the tray down on top of a dresser for now. "Don't worry, I brought medicine. You'll feel better soon." First, however, he opened the extra blankets and draped them over the bed and his boyfriend. "Sit up a little? And put that under your tongue until it beeps," he added, handing over the thermometer after turning it on. 

"How do humans /do/ this once or twice a year?" Gabriel's question sent him into another coughing fit; he made a face, but when he was done, he sat up, propped up against a pillow, and put the thermometer under his tongue. He eyed the tray as Sam set it down on the nightstand. "Won' that hur my throa'?" he asked of the orange juice. 

"Well, _most_ of us get the flu shot so we don't have to," Sam said before shaking his head as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "No, orange juice actually feels good going down when you're sick, despite the acid. Weird, I know." He waited until the thermometer beeped, and then took it back. Sure enough, the archangel had a fever, but not a dangerous one. Sam popped a couple of bright-orange pills out of their packaging and handed them to Gabriel. "These will lower your fever, and they've got painkillers and cough suppressants in them. They may make you feel sleepy, even though they're the daytime ones, but overall you'll feel better."

Gabriel took the pills from Sam, but looked at them askance. "How am I supposed to swallow these?" he wanted to know. "They're as big as my brother's ego!"

"Oh, um..." Sam was at a momentary loss; it had been a very long time since he hadn't been able to swallow pills. "Maybe do one at a time. Put it on your tongue, then take a small drink of juice. Then throw your head back so the pill falls down to the back of your throat, and swallow the pill and the juice." 

Gabriel gave his boyfriend a Look that told him exactly what he thought of his advice. But, he had no choice. It took five attempts and several aspirations of orange juice, but he finally managed to get both pills down. By then, he was flat-out glaring at Sam. 

"I'm sorry, babe. I promise, it gets easier once you get used to it," Sam told him, looking apologetic as he smoothed Gabriel's damp hair back from his face. "Now, you need to eat something." He handed the bowl of soup and the spoon to Gabriel. 

Gabriel apparently wasn't sick enough yet to have lost his appetite, because he polished off the soup fairly quickly. Sam made him drink some more juice before helping him snuggle down under the covers. "Do you want the TV on?" Sam asked, still sitting on the edge of the bed. 

"Yah." It was a slight bone of contention between them; Gabriel liked it on for background noise and occasional entertainment, while Sam preferred it to be quiet in the room. 

"Okay." Sam also hated daytime TV, but he used the remote on the nightstand to turn it on, flipping through channels until he found a judge show. Gabriel liked those (go figure). "I'm going to go clean up the dishes," he said. "Text me if you need anything." He set the rest of the juice, the medicine, the tissues, and the thermometer on the nightstand and then picked up the nearly-empty tray. 

"Feel awful, Sam." Gabriel looked awful, too, and it didn't help that he'd learned a few things about making puppy dog eyes from Jack. 

"I know, babe." Sam leaned down to kiss his forehead. "I'll be right back, and then we can snuggle." He knew there was a chance of him becoming ill too, but he had had his flu shot this year and thus felt fairly confident that even if he did get it, it wouldn't be that bad. 

"'Kay." Monosyllabic Gabriel was strange, but understandable given the situation. Sam headed back to the kitchen with the tray.

Sam quickly finished the dishes, set them all on the drying rack, and then retrieved his laptop on his way back to their room. He went in quietly, half-hoping Gabriel would already be asleep, but more coughing told him he needn't have bothered. "Sam!" The hunter kept himself from rolling his eyes at Gabriel's tone. Just barely. "I think it's tuberculosis!" 

Never mind, Sam rolled his eyes and sighed. "It's not tuberculosis, Gabe. Are you coughing up blood?"

"I coughed up something!" Gabriel waves a used tissue in the air. 

Sam makes a face, but gets close enough to inspect it. "That's just mucus, not blood," he informed his boyfriend. "It's normal. Anyway, it takes _years_ of having tuberculosis before you start coughing up blood."

Gabriel glared at him, then let the used tissue fall to the floor. With a sigh, Sam got the room's trash can and set it next to Gabriel's side of the bed so he could toss his used tissues in without having to get up. "Can't be just the flu," Gabriel complained. "This is too _awful_ to just be the flu." 

Sam rounded the bed, and climbed in on his side, though he propped himself up against the headboard and put his laptop on his lap. "I know, it feels terrible," he soothed his boyfriend. "But it'll get better." He doesn't have the heart to tell Gabriel it's probably going to get worse for a day or two before it gets better. 

"Wanna snap myself well." Gabriel snuggled up to Sam's leg as best he could, leaning his sore head against Sam's hip. "Wan' _Cas_ to snap me well. Hell, wan' _Lucifer_ to snap me well." 

"We talked about that already," Sam replied, reaching down to stroke Gabriel's sweaty hair. "This is better for you in the long run." 

"You're so mean. Nothing that's good for you should feel this _bad_." The archangel started coughing again, then groaned as he had to retrieve another tissue. "Disgusting," he complained. 

Sam was not looking forward to two or three more days like this. Keeping a tight rein on his patience, he said, "I know. I'm sorry, Gabe. I wish you didn't have to feel this way, but...this is the way Chuck made things."

"Fuck Dad," was Gabriel's heartfelt reply. "Sideways with an unlubed cactus."

"I'm pretty sure every human on the planet has shared your sentiment at one time or another." Sam couldn't bring himself to do anything with the laptop, so he eventually set it aside on his nightstand and laid down fully, so he could cuddle Gabriel, who was still shivering from chills. "Especially the women. At least you don't have periods."

"Wassa dick move," Gabriel agrees, turning so he can be the little spoon (really, there's not much choice given their size difference). "Eve didn' deserve it. Should've seen Kali when she got hers." 

Sam made a face. "No, thanks," he said. "Now, rest, while Judge Judy gives that asshole a piece of her mind." He hadn't even bothered to pay attention to the TV, but it was a fair bet that Judge Judy would soon give some asshole a piece of her mind since her show was on.

Gabriel quieted, and Sam had hopes that he'd fall asleep. Just when he was starting to fall asleep himself, however, he heard a long, drawn-out groan. "Dyyyyyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggg." Sam sighed. One week, and his boyfriend would be back to normal. He'd been to Hell. This was just going to be one more week of it. 

"What if it's mononucleosis?"

"Go to _sleep,_ Gabriel."

"But--"

" _Sleep!_ "

"Dyyyyyyyyyyyyiiiiiiinnnng."

"Gabriel--"

"Shh, Judge Judy's gonna tell off the asshole."

It was Sam's turn to groan.


End file.
